State Rep. Mark Meek will retain seat

Democratic State Rep. Mark Meek has easily won re-election by getting more than 55 percent of the vote in unofficial Nov. 6 returns.

Meek is a longtime Gladstone resident, Realtor and small-business owner. He has coached high school football, served on the Clackamas County Planning Commission and was chair of the North Clackamas Chamber of Commerce.

"Thank you to the voters of House District 40 for placing your confidence in me once again," he wrote on Facebook on the day after the election. "I look forward to continue serving as your state representative."

A 2013 political science graduate from Linfield College, Josh Hill was nominated by the Republican Party to challenge Meek for the district that includes Oregon City, Gladstone, Johnson City, and parts of unincorporated Clackamas County.

Meek is a supporter of the re-opening of the Willamette Falls Locks and revitalizing Oregon City's waterfront through the new public path to the falls. His legislative priorities included new investments in education and veterans' services, protecting seniors in long-term care and expanding the supply of affordable housing.

Meek challenged Sherry Hall for the Clackamas County elections clerk position in 2014. He was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in November 2016, defeating his Republican opponent by nearly eight points in one of Oregon's most competitive house districts.

During his freshman term in the Oregon Legislature, Meek upset fellow landlord/investors by supporting a bill to lift a statewide ban on rent control. In writing an amendment to the tenant-protection bill passed by the House, he also upset tenant advocates by paring mandatory relocation assistance payments to tenants from the equivalent of three-months rent to one-month rent.

Meek's election sets the stage for rent control to return as an issue in the upcoming legislative session.